Frankie McAvoy felt his Preston North End side were made to pay by a clinical Brentford side as the visitors earned a 5-0 win at Deepdale.
North End trailed by two at half-time, despite it having been an open 45 minutes, but in their search to get back into the game in the second half, the Lilywhites conceded another three in the final 15 minutes.
Speaking to iFollow PNE after the game, the Interim Head Coach said: “It’s 5-0, there’s no hiding away from the fact that we’ve lost comprehensively today. I thought first half, although we were 2-0 down, I didn’t think there was a lot in the game at all.
“They looked a wee bit more clinical when they get forward than we did. The goals were preventable.
“We say at half-time that we were 2-0 down the last time we played them, all you need to do is try to get the next goal, if we can get the next goal, the game then becomes a different game altogether
“I just thought we looked as though we had the opportunity where Ryan puts Emil in, it sort of doesn’t come off for him. I was just thinking, ‘Let’s try to bust it open, try and get the goal,’ with two wide players with Scott and Anthony and with a back four to try and get us more up the pitch to get the next goal because we always knew the next goal would be crucial.”
From that point, Frankie felt his side didn’t well enough for the third goal, which came with a quarter of an hour remaining.
“Unfortunately, we don’t defend well enough for Toney’s goal, I think it’s Forss who goes down beyond Sepp, clips it to the back stick and then we don’t defend well enough. When the third goal goes in, it’s then difficult for us.
“What you’re trying to do is just try to keep a wee bit of calmness about them, make sure we don’t go too gung-ho, and just try to preserve where we were. At the end of the day, we’ve lost a further two goals.
“The fourth goal was just a high ball over the top, we don’t defend it well enough. We defended really well last week, but for how well we defended last week, we didn’t defend anywhere near well enough today.
“The fifth one was really disappointing for us, it was rubbing salt into the wound for us. I thought it was a free-kick for us when the ball went for in for Jay for the corner. It’s an easy one to just blow and then get us up the pitch but they allowed it to play on and unfortunately, we get done with another one.
“Over the piece, we defended poorly. When I changed it, sometimes you get plaudits when subs come on and do well for you, and they have done in the last couple of games. Today, it didn’t work for us, and that’s one I have to take on the chin to be honest.”
Frankie explained that he knew there was a possibility of conceding again as his side remained positive in their search for a goal back.
“I thought we did well in the first half and I thought it was a good, open game, because at the end of the day, I’ve said for the previous two games, I want to try to create more opportunities and score more goals, we need to try do that.
“I know myself that when you’re 2-0 down, the chances are that you can lose another couple trying to get back into the game. I did that today, I’m an honest person to admit that, and ultimately, it didn’t work.
“I’ve got to hopefully learn from that, get the players to learn from it, get ourselves dusted down and just look forward to the next game and get prepared as best we can for Stoke next Saturday.”
The Interim Head Coach added that it was key for his team not to dwell on the result too much, in the same manner that they couldn’t be too high after a positive result.
“What I’ve said before, even when obviously Alex had lost his job and moved on, I said to the players that the most important thing in football is don’t get too high when you win games and don’t get too low when you lose games.
“That’s what we’ve got to do. At the end of the day, it’s a game where we’ve not picked up any points, we’ve lost convincingly because people just look at the scoreline sometimes and you’re beaten 5-0, you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say, ‘Unfortunately, we didn’t defend well enough today.’
“But credit to them, they took their opportunities and their chances when they came and it’s just one we’ve got to take on the chin and move on.”
Watch more from Frankie by clicking on the video above.